International Football History and Statistics

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On this day in football history

1924 W.H.(Billy) Smith became the first player to score a goal direct from a corner kick following the change in the law during the previous summer. He was playing for Huddersfield Town against Arsenal. He spent 21 years with the Yorkshire club, 1913 to 1934 and won every honour in the game. Was a member of the team which won the Championship three years in succession, 1924, 1925 and 1926. Missed Town's 1920 Cup Final through being suspended the week before the match but two years later won the trophy for the club by scoring from a penalty in the last minute against Preston North End. Was also on the losing side in the 1928 and 1930 Finals. Played in 500 League games for Town and scored 108 goals and between 1922 and 1928 appeared in 3 internationals for England. Joined Rochdale in 1934 and played 3 games for them, 1 goal. His son Conway, was a well known forward with Queens Park Rangers and Halifax Town in the 1950s who scored over 150 League goals.

1927 Nelson transferred Jimmy Hampson, their 19 year old centre forward, to Blackpool. In two years of Third Division football he had scored 42 goals in 63 matches and in his first incomplete season at Blackpool he hit 31 in 32 games. The following season he increased his total to 40 and in 1929-30 when the club won the Second Division title he scored 45. He continued to score goals for the club up to the time of his death in the most tragic circumstances in January 1938. He was a member of a a party returning from a fishing trip when their yacht was in collision with a trawler in Fleetwood Bay and he was lost overboard and drowned. He was only 30. In all League football he had scored 289 goals in 423 matches, 247 goals and 360 matches being for the Sea-siders. He played for England against Wales and Ireland in 1930 and Austria in 1933.

1935 Sheffield Wednesday signed Bobby Bruce, a Scottish international inside forward from Middlesbrough. Unfortunately after only 5 matches he sustained an injury which ended his career. He began his senior career with Aberdeen in 1924 and moved to Middlesbrough in January 1928. Won a Second Division medal in 1929 and his Scottish cap against Austria in 1933. Played in 336 League games both sides of the border and scored 103 goals.

1958 Tottenham Hotspur appointed Bill Nicholson, a former international wing half with the club, as manager. He was to lead the club into its greatest period when they won League and Cup in 1961, the Cup again the follwing year and in the year after that became the first British club to win a major European trophy when they won the Cup Winners' Cup. In his playing days he was a fine defensive half back who made his debut in 1938 and continued until 1955. He played in 320 peace-time League games and scored 6 goals, winning Second and League Championship medals in successive seasons 1950 and 1951. Played once for England, against Portugal in 1951, and scored with his first kick in an international match.